In October, when Gwyneth Paltrow threw a temper tantrum over a then-upcoming Vanity Fair profile, gossip was that the actress and aspirational-lifestyle sage was upset about rumors of marital infidelity. At the time, Page Six speculated that the actress was trying to hide a purported
affair with Elle MacPherson's husband—the Miami billionaire Jeff Soffer.

Now Vanity Fair has published a piece in its March issue "on the Gwyneth Paltrow love/hate phenomenon," as editor Graydon Carter describes it. Earlier this month, Carter released part of his monthly editor's letter in advance, including a denial that the magazine's story would contain any "bombshell
revelations." He reiterated that claim today in, publishing the complete
text of the missive.

Under the coy headline "The Paltrow
Affair," Carter's letter reveals nothing interesting about his Paltrow investigation, except for the embarrassing fact that he finds her website Goop "no
more elitist or out of touch than many women's magazines." He performs his role of judicious gatekeeper of information about the stars:

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We'll save our gunpowder for bigger stories. And so, sorry as we are to disappoint all those many people out there, for the time being we'll leave it to another publication to roll out the "epic bombshells" surrounding Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a story I might read. I just don't want to publish it.

Now read it Carter can. No sooner was his note up than Whisper,
the popular
anonymous secret-sharing app, immediately published a specific rumor: According to this particular image macro, Paltrow is cheating on her anodyne-rock megastar husband, Chris Martin, not with Soffer, but with Hollywood
lawyer Kevin Yorn.

Whisper is the first of several mobile apps intended to let people anonymously broadcast secrets—from whistle-blowing to gossip. But this particular posting apparently comes with a provenance. Whisper's editor-in-chief (and former Gawker internet editor) Neetzan Zimmerman tweeted the message out from his own account.

Posting secrets anonymously is an old idea on the internet, but Secret is special for one reason:…
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We asked him to clarify the source:

I can't reveal their identity for obvious reasons, but it's a
person with extremely close ties to Gwyneth who came to us directly after
Graydon Carter wrote that missive about why VF walked away from the Paltrow
profile last year.

I have no reason to suspect they're lying about this, and if
anyone would know the truth, this person would.

So Goop herself is not only having a rumored secret affair with an entertainment
lawyer—that affair is why Vanity Fair dropped the story? We emailed her publicist, Stephen Huvane, for comment. He wrote back (all sic):

That is absolutely 100 percent false. The sours at Whisper is clearly a fake

Three minutes later, he emailed us again:

What exactly is Whisper anyway?

We attempted to explain the app, to which he responded:

This is clearly a fabricated story with no credibility at all.

Ten minutes later, he followed up for the fourth time:

The only time Gwyneth has even recently seen Kevin Yorn (who she knows only casually through business contacts) was on a flight from NY-LA. Gwyneth was flying with her assistant and the CEO of Goop and Kevin coincidentally was also in the first class section. I cannot be more clear with you when I say she is NOT having an affair with Kevin Yorn and I will be notifying her attorneys as well.

We'll keep updating the Huvane emails. In the meantime, if you know anything, drop us a line at tips@defamer.com.